Be Our Guest

The guest room/office was the room of the house to come together most quickly once we moved in. The large window and unfortunate placement of electric outlets are two factors that really limit the furniture arrangement, which (and also for security’s sake) is why we chose the back room for our bedroom.

I love the mix and match of all the pieces together, yes, even the cheap birch veneer bookshelf from target which looked better in our old loft with its lighter color palette. The light “wood” does help keep the room from being too heavy with the gray walls (paint color name unknown), the dark floors, and the dark-ish desk. Gotta have somewhere to put books (and this isn’t all of them!)

The above shot is what you see when you step into the room. On the right is a tall-ish 5 drawer dresser, and past that is another window (with a tablecloth hung as a temporary curtain. oh the shame) and a closet large enough to house Mosey’s crate. I love that my pup is crate-trained; it sets my mind at ease that he’s not destroying my books, shoes, rugs, etc while I’m away. He’s not prone to this kind of behavior in general, but who knows what the mischievous little guy could get into all day with no supervision. Anyway, I’m glad the eyesore crate is hidden in the closet, which we affectionately call “Mosey’s room.” Anyway, no photos of that corner of the room. (Edit: Okay, fine, here’s a glimpse into Mosey’s World).

To add a little interest, I covered the dresser that holds some CDs, some books, and most of my sewing supplies, with a beautiful scarf I picked up while in Morocco. I love the way the blue and rich red play with the wood tones of the dresser and the wall color. The water bottle filled with sand is from Morocco–the fascinating red sand from the Sahara desert. My goal is to have one drawer in this chest of drawers empty for guests to use. I am creeping closer to that goal becoming a reality.

Unfortunately, we only have a twin bed and neither of our couches really lend themselves to being slept upon. Let’s take up a collection for an aerobed! Then more people can come visit!

I love being in this room in the afternoon when the light pours in. And so does someone else: this is how he waits for “dad” to come home from work while I work on the ole blog :)

Sources:

Bed, hand me down from Angela‘s family (mattress mine from high school– well renowned to be the most comfortable ever, by the way)

Comforter, from Target (“pebble” design)

Vanity-turned-desk, free from the re-use shed at the landfill

Light-colored bookcase, the cheapest one Target offered ;)

Foot locker, hand-me-down from my mother’s college days

Dresser (not pictured–to the right of the door leading into the guest room), Salvation Army

Chair, hand-me-down from mother-in-law. Its match lives in the kitchen.

Curtains, IKEA. Should have picked up two packages so I’d have something to put on the window I didn’t show you.

Zebra Rug, Urban Outfitters on clearance (yay!)

Here’s an off-topic bonus shot: our front walk-up.

Luckily, in the few short weeks that have passed since I took this photo, the tiny plant at the base of the bricks shot up and bore beautiful purple flowers. The grass has filled in, as well, and we’ve done some work on the flower bed.

I have big ideas to make this space a little more inviting, which I plan on doing this spring/summer, including:

A bench

Flowers

Lights?

Possible outdoor rug?

I’ll continue doing more detailed posts about each room of the house, and with any luck you should be seeing more of the front walk-up. I really do want to transform it!

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It always makes me smile that you have Yaya’s bed, I hope you don’t ever get rid of it… IF you are looking for more “bed space” have you thought about getting the roll away portion for under the day bed part? We used to have that, but somewhere it disappeared…
Rooms looks beautiful Staci <3

I personally would love to see a Before/After of the Not-So-Great-Corner, especially the tablecloth window covering (I had to do this with a blanket once!). I also think that if you have the space under the bed, you can go for the trundle experience, even a DIY version. Though, I’ve heard some pretty good things about the new air mattresses.

I really like the way this room looks. If we weren’t converting our space into a nursery, I’d be apt to copy a lot of it. Our room looks about the same size. And I love the sentimental value of the sand in the water bottle. <3

PS–Is the empty frame a statement, or a placeholder? Either way, I'm intrigued. I love old, complicated frames! And crate training is awesome.

If I make any changes or improvements to the not-so-great corner, I will show you. I’d love to make a trundle under the bed but that space provides LOTS of much-needed storage. There’s no box spring and the bed is the normal height of an average bed–which means there is the “normal under bed” space PLUS the volume of space that would normally hold a box spring. I can store two regular under-bed boxes stacked on top of each other, and tall paper storage boxes easily :) That said, an air mattress takes up much less space. The empty frame is kind of a statement at this point, I suppose… What I want to do is this (http://pinterest.com/pin/63191200991023873/) but feel silly going to the store for one yard or chicken wire. So I might come up with another project to do this summer that I also need chicken wire for and do both projects then :)

Trust me, I know about making the choice for more storage over anything else. Plus, one of the things I’ve seen is in a space like that is an air mattress that had a really easy deflate stored in the guest room (it was in a giant toy box looking thing). We thought of doing the air mattress instead of the futon couch back in the day, but realized that between our own need for a more comfortable couch (we had one we dumpster dived for that looked GREAT and sat sort of terrible in every way), most of our guests are likely to be older, such as parents, who would all need something a little more like a bed. Though, I’ve seen some pretty amazing upgrades in the air mattress that may have me eventually change my mind about it!

What about doing what Young House Love just did recently with the awesome corkboard, instead of the chicken wire? Though, if you’re really attatched to the idea, then I think you should go for it. Maybe do a series of them, like the pin, so you don’t have to buy such a small specific amount of wire? Also, I’m kind of spoiled living in a big city, but we have some places around here that have salvaged pieces from other houses that you could probably pick up the amount you need for your frame, if they exist.